I would like to say I intentionally slowed our progress through the day, putting obstacles in our path that we had to backtrack around or climb over and through as we marched across one valley into another, but I would be lying. Which was kind of sad as we didn't have to travel that far, at least if we could go by air.
I will say that these problems were suspiciously well-timed, as if there were some kind of cosmic joke being played at my expense, but the idea of some supreme god singling me out to punish and toy with me was a bit of a stretch. I call kawrashit, that in all of existence, he didn't have something better to do, so I was chalking it up to bad luck. Exploring always leads to running into something new. That's kind of the point. The trick is not letting the "something new" be the thing that gets you killed or get discouraged when it doesn't exactly work out.
After cresting the hill that Leeroy was leading us in circles on, we found a narrow valley. Halfway down the hillside into the valley, we found a sudden drop-off. It looked like half the hillside was washed away in a mudslide, and the resulting loose dirt was so steep that it was closer to a cliff than anything else. We could have possibly made it down, but I would bet a month's pay that someone would have lost their footing and started tumbling roll and ended with a broken neck when they stopped.
Half an hour later, once we had detoured around the wound in the hillside, we found a safe way down. Only to find that running through the valley's center under the canopy of trees was a thirty-something-foot-deep ravine with unstable sides at least twenty feet wide. We spent an hour moving along it until we reached a spot where the banks were narrow enough that a small tree fell across the gap, making a bridge. The only thing was we had to go one at a time, as the weight of one man was enough for it to bend and creak ominously, wasting more of our time as the clumsy legionaries shuffled across.
The amusing part, or what will be the amusing part when I look back on this moment in a decade or five, was that we soon discovered we were effectively on an island, and the far side of the island had an even larger and deeper gap between the banks. Turning on my heel at the sight, I trekked back across the island and past the legionnaires without saying a word, only grunting and nodding to signal them to turn back as I headed to clamber back across the fallen tree.
Admittedly, of everything, that one was on me. I should have been paying better attention and noticed the split in the river, then went to quickly check if there was a way through before everyone slowly came across.
After about another mile of walking past the risky ravine tree crossing, the ravine all but disappeared, leaving only a small hop down into and then up onto the banks. From there, it was just another walk through the woods with wet boots until we reached the next hill.
Where we found it wasn't so much of a hill but a cliff waiting for us. Looking up at the thirty-foot rocky wall, I called out to those behind me, "I'm beginning to understand why this area is unoccupied."
"You're not leading us into these on purpose to punish us for something, right?" Jankens asked, sounding disgruntled at standing at the base of another obstacle.
"Yeah," called a lean legionary to the side, who was leaning against a tree to rest while he waited, "if you wanna hurt me, punch me in the face like a man; don't take it out on my poor feet."
My lips curled as I felt a flare of amusement, "I gotta show you the wonders of nature; how else am I going to teach you how to appreciate scouts?"
"Oh," the talkative legionary said, "I appreciate scouts just fine. You can always tell who they are as they're never around when you need accurate information. And they always seem to be the new faces that appear in taverns with wild stories, only to disappear like a rancid fart in the wind when its time to settle the tab." Everyone let out a chuckle at that comment, as they had no doubt watched that exact scene play out more than once.
"Don't blame us that the only ones who can top our stories are the Knights. Maybe you should try doing something besides marching, standing in lines, and complaining if you want a decent tail. But with this adventure, I dare say that you can get your tab picked up at a tavern or two," I said with a smile before turning to the North and inspecting the cliffs to the west and east.
“Damn…" The man said, shock and wonder filling his voice, "That might be the best thing I've heard in weeks."
"Even better than Scout Green telling us the legion is a couple days travel north, Quenton?" Jankens asked.
"The faster we hook up with the legion, the faster we end up in a battle. If anything, his news was bad." Quenton complained, though it sounded to me like he just wanted to complain about something.
"But we will have others to watch our backs and won't have to take shifts on watch every night," Lun commented. "The security should count for something."
"Which is why I'm not complaining." He responded like he didn't just make one, "I'm just saying that it's not all good. But someone picking up my tab? There's nothing bad about that; now is there."
"If only you had functional tastebuds and didn't drink that dark ale swill. You might actually experience what it's like to have someone jealous of you." Kelv cut in, earning "Oos" from the rest of the men.
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"That might hurt if you didn't turn your nose up at everything that wasn't wine. But then that's just the noble coming through."
"I think we should go this way," I said, still looking up at the stone wall, cutting off the good-natured bickering, "It looks like the walls lower farther to the eas—
"No!" Roared Leeroy from where he stood on the other side of the group. “Umm… Sorry, but— we… can't go that way…"
"Hmm?" Quinton grunted in curiosity, turning to look at him. "Are you gonna take back over? Gotta say that might be for the best. No offense, Green, but when Leeroy was leading us, we never encountered obstacles like this."
"None taken," I said, waving him off. I had more than learned how difficult it was to navigate without a map or pulses to help guide me. "I'm not deluded enough to think I can compete against Leeroy in finding a path in uncharted lands. Since Leeroy thinks we should go this way, let's go."
“…No… I-I di— didn't mean that we should go…" Leeroy stammered until he ended up in an incomprehensible mumble.
Turning to look Leeroy in the eye, I said, "Leeroy, I have faith in you. They have faith in you. Have some faith in yourself." Then, I turned and started walking. But after a couple steps, I couldn't stop myself from calling back over my shoulder, "But if we end up in an ambush and are moments from violent, bloody deaths, do the opposite of what you just felt, and we might make it out alive. No pressure, though!"
Stifled snorts of amusement sounded, but they were quickly stopped or drowned out by our footfalls. While the others continued to talk among themselves, I kept a close eye on the cliff to our side.
Was it a good idea to joke about us dying on Leeroy's first genuine conscious recommendation? Only if he's wrong. If he's right, then I'll just be the sarcastic asshole.
And I was reasonably confident that he was right just from how he snapped at me. He sounded like someone who could no longer take watching the bumbling fool in front of them mess up and needed to correct them before they wasted more of his time, so I might as well take a chance. Even if he was wrong, and I just hypothetically rubbed salt in the crippling wound, Leeroy wouldn't recover his confidence any time soon anyway, so I doubted it would matter much in the long run. Well, besides us going on an extra long detour…
But I was confident in him being right, so I studied the wall like I was searching for a secret passage I only had vague knowledge of. He sensed something, and all I had to do was find it.
The minutes ticked by, and everyone fell into the silence of companionable travel as most of an hour passed. Then, as we rounded a corner, I saw a large pile of loose rock broken away from the cliff face.
A smile touched my lips as we walked around the rubble's edge. From the sides, it looked like any other collapsed limestone wall. Looking at it head-on, there was a path through the jumble of stone boulders. A path that led to a flight of stairs.
"Well," I said, "I guess we can be excited that Leeroy is working again."
"No, we can't," Jankens said, his voice grave. "He brought us to the base of a massive staircase. And there will never be an occasion to celebrate being at the bottom of a hundred-and-fifty-foot-tall staircase."
"Shut up and move, Jankens," Lun said from the back, "The faster we climb up, the sooner we're done."
"Spoken like a true Optio," Grumbled Jankens as he started to move forward, only to be cut off as Franklin shot forward.
"Ya lot up for a race?" He called over his shoulder, "I'll even make it easier for ya, considering yar scrawny bodies, I have to make it interesting somehow."
Snorting in amusement, I walked toward the stone steps, already feeling a phantom burning in my legs as the others jeered back at the kin, taking up his challenge.
Two minutes later, I stepped off the last step and looked back at my companions, who were two-thirds of the way up the stairs. I couldn't stop a smug smile from touching my lips as I watched them struggle. I would be right along with them, but a tendril exerting an upward pull on my harness the whole way made it little more than walking up a slightly sloped hill.
And I didn't even feel a speck of shame for wasting the mental energy, as I was spending it at the same pace I regenerated it. If a small expenditure of willpower allowed me to avoid the current huffing and puffing the legionaries were doing as Optio Lun pushed them forward from the rear, I was willing to pay the price every time. Apparently, they really didn't want to lose to Franklin.
While keeping up with me might have ignited the resolve to not be devastatingly shown up, it wouldn't have put the passion in their eyes that was burning now. That was all due to Franklin's challenge. More specifically, it was his handicap he chose to give them.
Franklin was currently clawing his way up the stone wall next to their stairs while keeping up their pace. I had to admit it was impressive. Maybe no one intended to try this hard at first, but it had become a matter of legion pride at this point, and they were determined not to be found wanting.
Turning away from the competition, I walked up the rest of the hill's slope and blinked in surprise. A border of black and gray was before me, and from one step to the next, I went from the click of stone to the puff of ash being crushed under my foot.
"Well, we made it to the destruction," I muttered as I walked to the ridge line. Cresting the peak, I saw the destruction laid out below me in the broad valley. From this hill, I could see two smaller ridge lines before the land mostly leveled out all the way to the base of Broken Peaks, which I thought I could make out far in the distance, though the smoke haze made it hard to be sure. Within the gently sloping rolling plain, many fortresses, surrounded by farms, dotted the land.
Those fortresses closer to my charred hilltop all had burned trees and ash around many of the now-broken structures. But even with the once towering buildings being brought to their knees, some of the ruins still had warbands gathered around their shells, preparing to enter their depths. "Those are some tough bastards…"
My words trailed off, and a smile spread over my face. I saw a formation of people with gold and red banners sprinkled within their numbers marching across the destruction far to the east. "Well, look at that. I guess we found t—
"Green," came Kanieta's voice from next to my foot, causing me to hop to the side as I let out a small, high-pitched shriek. As I turned, half drawing my sword, I saw a black, semi-opaque fox that ignored my reaction to continue to speak in Kanieta's voice, "I found the Crescent Moon camp, but they were already moving out. It looks like they are heading north, and if I had to guess, your nearby legion is their target."